If you’re a part of the bookish community in any way, you know how easy it is to get caught up in the hype. A certain book will all of a sudden be EVERYWHERE! Pictures, hauls, reviews, insta, – everywhere! Suddenly, you’ve heard about it so much that it’s in your dreams and you’re convinced that you NEED the book! But by the time you get around to reading it, it doesn’t live up to your expectations. Here are 5 books where the hype told me that I would love it, but it didn’t turn out quite as expected:
Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme where I explore different topics. If you are interested in participating I would love to have you! Here is a list of my Upcoming topics in October – please remember to ping back a specific post of mine so I get a notification and I will add you to the participants list!
HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer
There were so many reasons why this book was hyped. Her Lunar Chronicles series was AMAZING and this was a retelling of Alice where we learn about the red Queen and why she went crazy! Everything about this screamed for me to love it. But sadly, it just fell flat. There didn’t seem to be enough strings to connect what she turned into! No, her life wasn’t easy, but she just snapped without reason and went completely evil. I guess I expected a slow burn to that event. But the character development was also lacking, and the plot moved a little too slow for me. Her other series though – phenomenal!!
FLAME IN THE MIST by Renee Ahdieh
This is yet another retelling (I promise I really do love retellings!) but this was was much of the same as Heartless. I absolutely LOVED The Wrath and the Dawn duology. It was just soooooo good! But I felt like this book was a little forced and hadn’t had much time spent on it to develop it as much as her first series. The characters were lacking, the plot was lacking, and it just didn’t feel complete. I found myself getting so confused and not being able to connect to the characters in any way.
BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman
For the longest time, this book was everywhere! People refused to talk about it because of spoilers. Basically the only thing I knew going into it was that there were monsters that if you look at them, they can get you. So if you go outside or look out the window, you need to be blindfolded. Terrifying! But my issue with this book was that it lacked all detail! Yes, there was suspense and that was great and all. But I’m the type of person who needs to know what I’m supposed to be scared of! This was just so blah!
FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell
When I first started getting back into reading, everyone was screaming about Rainbow Rowell. Most specifically, Fangirl. I wasn’t sold on that one, so I read her other books and LOVED them! But when I finally read Fangirl, I realized that this was just not meant for me. I was entirely the wrong audience for this. I found the characters soooooo annoying!
CATWOMAN – SOULSTEALER by Sarah. J. Maas
I realize that anything SJM is hyped! Let’s be honest! But this was way out of her comfort zone and people seemed to really love it! Early reviews were all 4-5 stars and everyone was freaking out! But for me, this is yet another case of it just not being meant for me. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t awful. It was just something mediocre and I had others things that I wanted to read more. So I gave up on it and moved to a book I was more interested in.
TOP 5 TUESDAY PARTICIPANTS:
- Mall3tg1rl
- Malanie Loves Fiction
- Diagnosis: Bookworm
- The Book Prescription
- Books And Co.
- Beach Bookworm
- Birdie Bookworm
- A Fictional Bookworm
- Buried Alive By Books
- Kristin Kraves Books
- Read by Dev
- Sleepy Sam Reads
- Some Books and Paws
- Kyera’s Library
- Fictionologyst
- Happy Bookshelves
- Libby Reads
- Many Things Bookish
- Static Books
- Write Where I Read
- Hanna Reads
- The Words Gremlin
- Once Upon A Spine
- Bookishly Rebecca
- Books Are Only The Beginning
- Lili’s Blissful Pages
- Books and Blends
- Ink Trails
- Absolute Shannonigans
- The Bookish Deer
- Beware of the Reader
- Stuck in Fiction
- Paper Royalty
I need to also send out yet another apology as I won’t have the chance to comment on the participants posts today. I am still catching up from the off the grid readathon, and I have a busy day ahead of me. I will add you all to the list ASAP though! What books were super hyped and you didn’t agree where the hype came from?
Until next time, happy reading!
The only one of these that I’ve read is Flame in the Mist, but I totally agree with you. It really wasn’t that great.
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Oh no not Heartless! It’s one of my favorite books of all time!! lol No worries though. The only other book I’ve read on your list is Fangirl and I enjoyed it. I don’t understand why people are cray-cray over it but it was decent. I’ve also been looking forward to Flame In the Mist and Catwoman, I hope they don’t let me down.
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I can see why people loved Heartless, but there were certain things about it that I just couldn’t get over!
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Girrll I’m so agree with Fangirl, then I tried her other books too but they didn’t work for me too. Shame. Ahh Catwoman in on my TBR but now I’m not quite sure I’m going to read it.
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Don’t take my word for it with Catwoman! I seem to be the odd one out who doesn’t like it lol
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Actually I’ve heard mixed reviews too, so now I’m not sure 😂
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Lol give it a shot and decide for yourself. That’s the best way 🙂
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Oops I disagree 😎 Fangirl is my favorite
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It is for most 🙂
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nice i forgot about Heartless, but mine is up
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I’ve only read Heartless and Fangirl but I’m not even interested to read the Flame in the Mist. It’s just too hyped for my liking and I’m pretty sure I would end up not liking it anyway. 🙈
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Aaaaw, I’m such a… I mentioned you in my post but it wasn’t a link. I didn’t tag you at all.And thanks to our time differences, it’s hard to see each other’s posts. 🙂
Anyway, I haven’t read any of these books. mainly because of the hype surrounding them. hehe,
Here’s my post:
https://lilisblissfulpages.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/top-5-overhyped-book-series-top-5-tuesday-13/
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Thanks for sending me a link – got you added 🙂
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Thank you. 🙂
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I’ve a couple of these in my TBR and now I’m scared :p I’ve loved Fangirl, though, so maybe I also enjoy Bird Box and Heartless more than you did (*crosses fingers hopefully*). Great list!
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I hope you do like them more than I did!!
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I LOVED fangirl but I totally get what you’re saying.
Trust me I dislike almost all the hyped books out there. Great list!
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Hahahahaha! I love all of Rainbow Rowell’s other books though 😂
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As I’m not big on reading books surrounded by a ton of hype, I haven’t done this one today. I just didn’t have any books to grip about! 😉
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Lol that’s a good thing!
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There’s so much division over Marissa Meyer and Sarah J Maas books that I think I’m just going to steer clear of them the rest of my life lol
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Don’t! Omg the Lunar Chronicles series is AMAZING and I’ve read the whole ACOTAR series 3 times 😂 they’re not all bad
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Nooo not Heartless! Lol I totally get what you mean though. And YES to Fangirl!! I actually DNF’d that one😂😂
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I wish I loved Heartless as much as everyone else did!
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It’s so interesting to see people’s opinions and how different they can be! I liked that Bird Box was vague about what was it that we’re supposed to be scared about (firstly because, really, that book requires LOTS of suspension of reality to be enjoyed). But yes, I thought the author would tell us what the thing was after all. I didn’t mind it though.
Also I loved Fangirl! Hahahaha what other RR books did you read?? I wasn’t sure I wanted to pick up anything else because this was cute but… not entirely my style.
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I like vagueness and suspense to a point. But I like knowing in the end what it was. I’m the type of person with an imagination that will take things further so knowing makes me even more scared
I’ve read every Rainbow Rowell book. It seems that I relate to her adult books more. I LOVED Attachments and Landline 🙂
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Ohh I’ve actually been recommended Landline before… I think I’ll give it a chance!
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My link here: https://absoluteshannonigans.blogspot.com/2018/10/tuesday-tops.html
Oh no! I loved the Bird Box! Then again, I find the unknown to be scarier than the known. (ie: My one complaint about The Quiet Place is that they showed us the monsters.)
EEk, Catwoman is one I really want to read (though I have to get through WonderWoman and Batman first.)
Great question this week, it was a lot of fun answering. 🙂
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There are a lot of people who find the unknown scarier than what is described. I wish I was that person sometimes! I’ll get you added – thanks for participating 🙂
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And now I am really nervous about Sarah J Maas!!!! And Renee Ahdieh (I own both but they just sit pretty on my shelves…). As usual my link late ….http://bewareofthereader.com/when-the-foreplay-is-great-but-sadly-he-does-not-deliver-top-hyped-books-that-left-me-disappointed/
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Great list! We felt opposite on the Marissa Meyer books! But I still love her as an author.
Here’s my T5T link this week, just in case!
https://paperroyaltyblog.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/top-5-tuesday-you-didnt-live-up-to-the-hype-books/
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Heartless was disappointing indeed, I forgot about it!
Also Rainbow Rowell is not my cup of tea!
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Oh noooo, I have heartless on my shelves but haven’t read anything by Marissa Meyer yet.. guess I’ll start with the Lunar Chronicles haha
I loved Fangirl. I was one of the first books I read and I found it super cute!
Great list 😉
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Maybe read Heartless first? I think that I loved the Lunar Chronicles so much that I was disappointed that it wasn’t the same
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True, it might be better to go from worst to best haha
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I’ve changed my mind so much about Fangirl over the years. I loved it when I first read it but now I don’t get why I was so obsessed with it haha. It wasn’t a terrible book but it also wasn’t as amazing as I first thought.
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Not a terrible book at all! It was one of those one that if I had read it in my teens or twenties then I might have liked it. I’m just too old 😂
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Aaaaand I haven’t read any of these since I thought they would be overhyped!
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😂
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I agree about Flam in the Mist! One for me was definitely mortal instruments series
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I liked The Mortal Instruments enough to finish the series, but didn’t absolutely love it as much as everyone else seems to
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I’ve only read Heartless and Fangirl and I actually loved them both! I do have to say I went into them without any hype in mind, so that probably helped me enjoy them that much (hype can ruin books, for real!). I found Heartless to be my favorite Marissa Meyer’s book, although I have only read Cinder, Scarlet and Renegades so far. As for Fangirl, I found it nice and cute -but, admittedly, nothing super special.
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Fangirl was nice and cute, but I was just too old for it. If I would have read it when I was younger, my opinions would have been much higher!
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Oh, yeah. That happens to me a lot too, hahaha.
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I was curious if Heartless lived up to the hype!! That’s so disappointing. 😦
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Some people loved it! I just wasn’t one of those people 😂
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That’s sad. The author always gives really good book recommendations. If I see a recommended read from her I almost always pick it up!!
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